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TurtleBoySports has found a new contender for the title of biggest idiot we all have to share oxygen with. This name is Mark Skiba, and of course he’s from Alabama. Here’s his story:

With $50,000 on the line, Auburn fan Mark Skiba stuck with his heart and refused to hedge his bet.

Last January, Skiba’s father was on vacation in Las Vegas when he placed a $100 bet for his son on Auburn to win the title game at 500-to-1 odds. The team’s thrilling finishes against Georgia and Alabama, and a loss by Ohio State to Michigan State in the Big Ten championship game, resulted in the Tigers landing in Pasadena opposite the top-ranked Seminoles.

Skiba’s $100 bet would have turned into a possible $50,000 if the Tigers won the VIZIO BCS National Championship. But Auburn lost to Florida State 34-31 in the closing seconds, rendering Skiba’s betting slip worthless.

When Skiba went public with his ticketlast month, many fans contacted him on Twitter to offer advice. Most told Skiba that if they were him, they would place a sizable bet against Auburn to guarantee a payday.

Skiba had planned on doing exactly that. But as Monday’s game approached, he backed off. With Florida State becoming more and more of a favorite, it meant that Skiba would have to bet even more money against Auburn to balance out the action. 

So after consulting with his high school buddy, accountant Brian Burnett, who is an Alabama alum, the two made the trip to Las Vegas for the game but decided to let the bet ride.

“I regret nothing,” Skiba said after the game. “At the end if the day, I was playing with house money for the last two months. This was not supposed to happen in so many ways. It’s the whole experience and the story. That’s what I will remember.

“It was a bit of a life-changing experience just from the exposure standpoint and tonight it definitely peaked.”

Others told Skiba that if he placed a bet on Florida State to win the game, he’d be jinxing his team.

“I heard from a lot of Auburn fans,” said Skiba, 39, who lives in Alabama and works for a medical software company. “Some of them said, ‘You’ve come this far, you going to give up now?'”

Skiba said, eventually, he felt weird about betting against his team.

“At the end of the day, I want us to win the game,” Skiba said. “We’re playing for the damn national championship. Winning the money still doesn’t even seem real.”

What. A. Moron. And what a liar too. You regret nothing? You sit on a throne of lies Mark. You regret everything. You’re not Mike Tyson dude. You can’t just shrug off losing $50,000 in the final minute of one of the greatest national title games in college football history. It’s not about the experience, because all things considered, it was a pretty shitty experience. You lost the money and your team lost in the most heart breaking manner. If you were holding that $50,000 in your hand (which you basically were) and someone pulled a gun on you and took it, would you say, “Oh well, it was thrilling to finally be involved in a real live hold up”?

The second I heard that some nudnik had made this bet, my instincts kicked in. I’ve been in situations like this before, but obviously for much less money. You’re in a big poker tournament, and it’s just you and someone else left. You’ve got around the same amount of chips, and first place gets $1,000 and second place gets $500. What do you do? You make a freaking deal and walk away. Sure, I could try to prove that I’m some sort of poker superstar, but in the end, it’s $500 on the line here. I’m taking my sure $250 and leaving. Sure I could go for the full grand but $250 could get me a month’s worth of McDonald’s and that’s not something I’m willing to give up.

So yea, I don’t feel sorry for this guy at all. He’s a complete and utter moron and I don’t for one second believe his blatant lie that he’s just cool with this. There’s absolutely no freaking way he slept that night. If I was him I bet $25,000 on Florida State to win that game outright before kickoff. Sure, it would only pay $10,000 or so if they won (since for whatever reason they were giant favorites), but that means either you either profit $9,900 if FSU wins, or $25,000 if Auburn wins.

If his issue is that he can’t bear to root against Auburn, well first of all, he’s a freaking complete moron. I love Notre Dame football. If you told me I win $25,000 if Notre Dame gets their ass kicked like they did last year, I’m rolling tide all night. Same goes for the Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and UMass basketball. I love those teams, but I’d gladly watch them lose in exchange for that kind of cash. The thrill of victory would be nice and all, but a down payment on a new home would last a lot longer and would gain equity. Sports are my drug of choice, and I love my teams, but I like money way more. If you’re dumb enough to care more about the outcome of a football game than $25,000 then you will eventually spend your life savings on magic beans at some point. It’s science.

Secondly, if he does what I would have done (bet $25K on FSU) then he’s still get every incentive to root for Auburn. He’d make $16K more on an Auburn win ($25K total) than on a FSU win ($9k). And newsflash dude: you’re not playing with house money. You’re playing with real, guaranteed, surefire money that you’re pissing down the drain because you have some sort of juvenile connection with Auburn football.

Or, if you were really smart you would’ve waited until Auburn was up 21-3 before you placed that bet. Since you were in Vegas you easily could’ve bet on the Seminoles right then and there, since they were +$300 underdogs to win at that point. So instead of winning $9K on a $25K bet, you would’ve won $75K on a $25K bet. Either way you’re guaranteed to make AT LEAST $25K profit at that point.

But you didn’t do it bros. And I know you said that winning the money doesn’t even seem real, but that’s because it’s not. It’s gone forever. You’re actually down $100. Oh yea, and your team completely blew the game and ended the SEC’s streak of 7 straight national titles. That’s like getting kicked full speed in the junk twice.

I know your idiot friends from back home told you that it would jinx Auburn if you bet on Florida State, but keep things in perspective. They’re from Alabama. If they had better instincts then they wouldn’t be living in Alabama.

Feel free to share your thoughts to keep the conversation going.

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